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C1847
Fort Richmond & the Hutt Bridge.
Scarce engraved view of the Hutt Bridge by Samuel Charles Brees. Brees description: The Hutt Bride was opened in the month of April 1844 … The view is taken looking down the stream, and shows Fort Richmond, which was constructed … Read Full Description
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Details
Full Title:
Fort Richmond & the Hutt Bridge.
Date:
C1847
Condition:
In good condition.
Technique:
Hand coloured engraving.
Image Size:
190mm
x 120mm
AUTHENTICITY
Genuine antique
dated:
1847
Description:
Scarce engraved view of the Hutt Bridge by Samuel Charles Brees.
Brees description: The Hutt Bride was opened in the month of April 1844 … The view is taken looking down the stream, and shows Fort Richmond, which was constructed under the direction of captain Compton, an enterprising settler of the Hutt …[here follows considerable detail about the construction, dimensions and price of the fort] … The excitement which was felt at the Hutt when a party of the 58th regiment took up their quarters in the fortress on the morning of 24 April 1845, will not soon be forgotten … the settlers had just completed it on the evening of the previous day when an attack was expected from the natives…The Hutt Bridge, which was erected by the New Zealand Company and opened in April, 1844. The view is taken looking down the stream, and shows Fort Richmond, which was constructed under the direction of Captain Compton, an enterprising settler of the Hutt. The 58th Regiment occupied the fort not long after it was completed in April 1845.
Collections:
Alexander Turnbull Library: A-109-030
Samuel Charles Brees (1809 - 1865)
Samuel Brees arrived in Wellington in 1842 to fill the position of surveyor and civil engineer for the New Zealand Company. During his time in Wellington he was responsible for continuing the work of his predecessor, William Mein Smith, surveying the Karori Road and the hills surrounding Wellington Harbour. He oversaw the completion of the initial Wanganui and Manawatu surveys. In 1843 he led an exploratory journey to the southern Wairarapa through Upper Hutt and the Rimutaka range, and prepared the preliminary subdivisions of these areas. By August 1844, six months before Brees’s contract was due to expire, the New Zealand Company was in financial difficulties and was no longer able to pay him. Throughout his period as principal surveyor he had given as much of his spare time as possible to his favourite leisure activity of recording his surroundings in pencil and watercolour. The ending of his employment freed him to devote more time to painting, while he settled his affairs and arranged for his family’s return passage to England. He had produced a substantial portfolio of views of all the areas he had visited, particularly scenes in and around Wellington. These works would normally have become the property of the New Zealand Company, but the company waived its claim to them in the expectation that Brees would publish the sketches and be somewhat compensated for the loss of income he had suffered through the early termination of his contract. On 8 May 1845 Brees, with his wife, now four children, and a servant, sailed on the brig Caledonia for London. His drawings were superbly engraved by Henry Melville in London and remain an important record of early Colonial settlement in New Zealand.
